Halloween wins out as my favourite holiday ever, as many of you know, and as much as I adore cooking and baking for it, there's no other seasonal event that I create quite as much food for, nor love cooking/baking in celebration of, quite like Christmas.
I think that stems in part from the fact that while Halloween is just one day. Yes, I start celebrating well in advance, but it doesn't usually call for the same degree of feasting or the endless trays of baked goods that early December straight on until the first new days of January does.
{As soon as the calendar flips over the twelfth month of the year, you'll find me - like jolly old St. Nick here - in the kitchen, apron on, oven fired up, and mountains of scrumptious holiday fare being churned out more days than not (and I wouldn't have it any other way!). Charming mid-century vintage Santa Claus illustration source}
Christmas food is nostalgic. It calls to mind our earliest days, (often) relatives that sadly are no longer with us, and good times that we may very well have memorialized in our memories. It is the first distinct bite of fruitcake, the luxuriously rich feeling of eggnog on your tongue. Christmas tastes like cranberries, all-spice, roast turkey, chocolate fudge, mincemeat, pumpkin pie and countless other flavours each so common to the human experience and yet individual to each of us an our own culinary lives.
Throughout the duration of each year, I delight in finding vintage recipe posts with a festive flare to them, which I tuck away for safekeeping until December rolls around. Most of these recipes are wonderful classics that many of know and love dearly, but a few are more - how shall we say - whimsical mid-century offerings that might be new to your Christmas dessert repertoire. Whatever the case, they all share in common certain tastes, scents, and even textures that we automatically associate with the holiday season and that are bound to make both you and all who gather around your seasonal table pleased as punch about what you've set down before them.
Today, with precisely two weeks to go until Christmas Day and festive food making really starting to hits its stride for many of us, I wanted to take this opportunity to share fifteen of the most delightful, timeless, family pleasing vintage holiday recipes that I've encountered online this year. Whether they're old favourites or new-to-you treats, I hope that any and all of them that you should happen to try out prove to be firm favourites that only add to the many terrific Christmas food recipes you already cherish.
The mid-1940s delivers this classic recipe for Grandma'a Molasses Cookies, which is low on sugar but big on old-fashioned gingerbread taste and seasonal appeal!
This mid-century recipe for Walnut Fruit Ring not only looks elegantly pretty (wouldn't it make for a marvelous Christmas Eve or Christmas Day breakfast treat?), but sounds thoroughly delicious as well. If walnuts aren't your favourite, you could easily substitute them with another nut that holds up well to baking, such as pecans, almonds, or macadamias.
Orange and almond extras add seasonal flavour and a sublime aroma to this wonderful looking Merrie Companie Cake from 1960, which you could further jazz up with candied peal or citrus slices inside or as a decorative finishing touch on the outside (in lieu of the fruit and nuts that are suggested). A dark chocolate icing or ganache (instead of the fluffy egg white icing) would also pair excellently with the flavours at work here.
Don't let the potential hurdles of making candy from scratch at home put you off, especially when there are so many dead simple recipes out there that involve little to "staging" of sugar, such as this classic Chocolate Marshmallow Creme Fudge, which spends a few minutes on the stovetop and that's it in terms of the cooking involved. Fudge is one of my favourite treats to make - and to give as a gift - at Christmas time, and I love whipping varieties such as rocky road, cherry nut, maple pecan, creamsicle, and classic chocolate versions such as this great fifties offering alike.
If dark fruitcake finds favour with you and your family, then why not step several decades back into the past and make this classic, tasty sounding vintage fruitcake recipe offering from 1927.
This recipe from 1949 for Peppermint Tapioca Cream is just the thing after a rich, heavy main meal, when you still want dessert, but nothing too substantial. If tapioca isn't your cup of tea, you could easily make as a rice, quinoa, or even oat based treat instead.
I don't know about you, but this lovely early fifties recipe for Peppermint-Stick Cake sounds December on a fork to me! It marries the always awesome combination of peppermint and chocolate together for a fun, crowd pleasing dessert that would be fabulous in cupcake form as well.
Need something sweet, fun, and apt to please everyone in your family from the ages of three to 103? Whip up a batch of these charming Chocolate Krackolates (and do feel free to rename them to something that rolls off the tongue a little better, if so desired). They're quick, delicious, and fairly easy on the wallet, too boot - something we can all use during the expense filled holiday season!
No other time of the year suits, or calls for, raisins better than Christmas season, if you ask me, and as I'm a huge fan of these sweet, zingy little dried fruits, I always stock up well in advance and use them in all manner of sweet and savoury dishes alike throughout December. This fun California Raisins recipe ad from 1962 provides ideas for two festive ways to use of some of those that you might have kicking around - the raisin bars in particular are calling my name!
A well known breakfast cereal (Weetabix) is the unexpected star in this creative early fifties take on the centuries old beloved classic that is Christmas Plum Pudding.
Three vintage molasses recipes - each splendidly well suited to the holiday season - call this lovely Brer Rabbit ad from 1950 home. I'm really intrigued by the the brownies and look forward to giving them a spin!
If jelly candies are a hit at your house, why not try making this 1940s recipe for Holiday Danties? Knox gelatin helps speed the process along in the kitchen, and the festive colours and flavours are bound to impress your friends and family alike when you bring them to the table!
{To learn more about a specific vintage recipe above, please click on it, or the name of the recipe I the description below it, to be taken to its respective page.}
♥ ♥ ♥
Yum, yum, merry yum! :) All of these recipes appeal to me and though I would have to modify most of them for my own medical dietary needs, that never stops me in the slightest! There are workarounds for so many different special diets these days (thankfully), so it's well worth at least experimenting - even if it means deviating a fair bit from the original recipe - to try and still enjoy as many of your seasonal favourites as possible.
Speaking of which, if you're looking for more thoroughly fun vintage holiday season dishes and sweet treats, be sure to check out my vintage recipes page, where you'll find all of the others that I've shared here over the years. Between today’s selection of fifteen desserts and those from years past, there's bound to be at least one or two awesome old school Christmas recipes that call your name and send you rushing to see how much cinnamon, candied fruit, molasses, or cocoa powder you still have in the pantry!
Enjoy this marvelous time of the year and all the food, be it homemade, store bought, or created by others in your life, that it delivers. Before we know it, Christmastime will be over for another year and our meals will go back to their wintertime norm.
Feast now, bake often, treat those you love to your scrumptious seasonal eats, and don't shy away from vintage holiday recipes - after all, they've been the backbone of many of our holiday meals and memories alike for generations now and that alone is well worth baking a fruitcake or two in celebration of! :)
